In the queue of extradition processes that the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office receives from different countries each year, recently the files have moved with unusual slowness. President Gustavo Petro, who must give the final approval for a person to be transferred to another country to serve a sentence or face a trial, maintains in his office dozens of cases that have already passed all the previous procedures, including the approval of the Supreme Court of Justice. Although Colombia maintains a high rate of deliveries, its decision times have become more irregular in one of the most traditional and notorious instruments of its cooperation with the United States in the fight against drug trafficking, one that Petro has questioned in the past and that has become the axis of his strong clash with President Donald Trump, who has even revoked his visa, called him a “drug trafficking leader” and included him on the list of people sanctioned for alleged links with the narco
At first glance, the cooperation remains. In the first half of the year, Colombia has carried out 154 extraditions, 84 of them for crimes associated with drug trafficking and 94 headed to the United States, while in all of 2024 there were 198. However, behind the global figure is an increase in requests and the stagnation of the cases of some big bosses, which were processed as usual by the high court, are frozen in the Executive.
At the beginning of the Petro Government, with Néstor Osuna as Minister of Justice, the Executive promoted judicial cooperation. In 2023 the Government reported 264 extraditions, the highest annual figure since 2015, and in 2024 it carried out 198 surrenders. In that period, the average time between the approval of the Supreme Court and the presidential signature ranged between one and two weeks. His successor, Ángela María Buitrago, also maintained a constant flow of extraditions during the year she remained in office. This deadline marks a great contrast with current times, which has attracted the attention of prosecutors and lawyers participating in the processes.
One of the most iconic cases that show the change is that of Larry Amaury Álvarez Núñez, or Larry Changa, the second in command of the transnational group Tren de Aragua. The Venezuelan has been held in the La Picota prison in Bogotá since June 2024. The Court endorsed his extradition a year later after a complex process, and the presidential signature, which usually took a maximum of a week, is still pending after five months.
A source from the Colombian Prosecutor’s Office who is familiar with the process explains that initially there were administrative delays because two countries, Chile and Venezuela, asked Changa to try him for crimes committed in their territories. As in any procedure of this type, the requests initially arrived at the Foreign Ministry, who forwarded them to the Attorney General’s Office. The investigative body carries out a first judicial review, such as verifying your identity. Then it is sent to the Supreme Court, which does a background analysis and checks, for example, that the crime for which the person is wanted is also classified as a crime in Colombia. In the case of Larry Changa, this analysis took time due to the existence of two simultaneous requests. Although the Supreme Court finally endorsed the transfer to Chile, the man remains in prison in Bogotá. All that is missing is the final signature of the president, who is free to deny extradition. The bottleneck is no longer in the judicial review, but in the final phase in the Casa de Nariño.
Another of the men whose judicial future hangs on Petro’s signature is Giovanny Andrés Rojas, alias Spider. He is the head of the so-called Border Commandos, a structure of the FARC dissidents that operates in the Amazonian department of Putumayo. He was captured in Bogotá last February, while participating in a meeting as a peace manager with Government delegates. At that time, the Prosecutor’s Office argued that, although the national arrest warrants against him were suspended due to his role in the dialogues, those aimed at extradition were not, and the US Government had requested one.
What came was a public freeze on extradition. Other delegates of the armed group conditioned the continuity of the table on Araña remaining in Colombia and Petro communicated, through the Ministry of Justice, that this transfer was suspended. “If the president signs the extradition, the group will leave the table immediately,” confirms a lawyer advising that process. The Government recognizes that any movement regarding the file could “break the trust” that has been attempted to build with that group, one of the few that has a process with progress in the total peace policy.
A third notorious case is that of Willington Henao, alias Mocho Olmedoleader of the dissident group of the extinct FARC known as the 33rd Front, a group that is in negotiations with the Executive. The Supreme Court endorsed his extradition to the United States in May of this year, but the order was suspended by the Government in July and has not been resumed. The most recent case that depends on the signature of the Executive is that of Andrés Felipe Marín, alias Pipe Tuluá, head of the La Inmaculada criminal gang, whose extradition was endorsed by the high court on November 12 and who is an important objective for American justice. With the growing tension between Petro and Trump, and with the Colombian’s bet that his total peace shows results in the nine months he has left in office, it is unlikely that it will be reactivated.
